Power BI lesson
Comparing periods
Revenue grew 44% from February to March: 45% in Lagos and 42% in Abuja. Change, divided by the old value: the growth formula analysts use every day.
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Two CALCULATE measures and one DIVIDE answer the question every manager asks:
Growth = DIVIDE([Mar Revenue] - [Feb Revenue], [Feb Revenue])Key points
This periodCALCULATE the measure for the latest month.
(new − old) ÷ oldDIVIDE the change by the old value.
At workWith years of data, analysts use a date table and DATEADD instead of one measure per month.
Always say which two periods you're comparing. Typing each month works for a quarter. For real reports, time functions like DATEADD do it for every month at once.
In Power BI Desktop
With years of data, mark a date table (Table tools, then Mark as date table) and use DATEADD or SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR instead of typing each month.
Practice
1. Build the growth formula from February to March.
Growth = DIVIDE([Mar Revenue] - [Feb Revenue], [Feb Revenue])2. Write a measure for March revenue.
Mar Revenue = CALCULATE([Total Revenue], Sales[Month] = "Mar")3. Write a measure for January revenue.
Jan Revenue = CALCULATE([Total Revenue], Sales[Month] = "Jan")4. A real report has three years of monthly sales. How do analysts usually get last month's revenue for every month?
A date table and a time function like DATEADD5. Write a measure for growth from January to February.
Feb Growth = DIVIDE([Feb Revenue] - [Jan Revenue], [Jan Revenue])Learn it by doing. This lesson is a short hands-on level on Bampaa: see it work, then build and write it yourself, with instant feedback.
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